


Atonement

by Clea2011



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Atonement - Freeform, E-mail, Enemies to Lovers, Epistolary, M/M, Merlioske-friendly, Misunderstandings, Office
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28579902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/pseuds/Clea2011
Summary: Merlin gazed in horror at his screen, unable to believe he’d been so stupid.  But there it was in black and white, sitting in his sent items folder.An email, intended for his mate Gwaine. But somehow it had gone to Arthur Pendragon instead.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 27
Kudos: 272
Collections: Finish that Fic Merlin!, Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 11





	Atonement

**Author's Note:**

> Written for HC bingo square Atonement
> 
> Not betaed and written in a hurry (I have one fic to go after this and 11 hours till the deadline!)
> 
> I've used a work skin on this one. Let's hope it works! It should work if the skin is turned off as well. Let me know if there are any issues. Thank you to La_Temperanza for the excellent guide.

Merlin gazed in horror at his screen, unable to believe he’d been so stupid. But there it was in black and white, sitting in his sent items folder. An email, intended for his mate Gwaine. But somehow it had gone to Arthur Pendragon instead.

From: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

Subject: The Arse

To: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Hello my friend, I see you thirsting over the consultant from Audit again. Those perfect globes of his are looking mighty fine today. It’s almost that time of year where old Kilgharrah gives us all our performance reviews. If I was him I’d give Arthur 10/10 for expertise in bending over.

Gwaine

From: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re:The Arse

To: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

I wouldn’t know. Have you sorted out those invoices from Gawant yet? Arthur’s going to want to look through them as part of his checks.

Merlin

From: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re: Re:The Arse

To: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Ah, I wouldn’t know indeed. You’ve been in his office four times this morning! That can’t all be boring invoice checking. Tell me you’ve asked him on a date? Or offered to give him a blow job in the photocopying room?

G

From: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re: Re: Re:The Arse

To: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

I’ve been assigned to help him with his report. He keeps asking questions. You know, for WORK, Gwaine! Oh what am I saying, of course you don’t know what that is. And if you did have to go in there and talk to him you’d know what an annoying, arrogant prat he is. Did you know his dad is _Uther_ Pendragon? As in everyone’s boss? The clue’s in the company name.

And I know Arthur says he’s working his way up through the company but Arthur also seems to think I’m his personal assistant, here to serve him. I do have my own work. Not that he seems to care about that. Bloody Audit.

Merlin

From: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Arse

To: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Oh Merlin, Merlin, Merlin…

Obviously he’s calling you in there because he’s lonely. And we both know that what you really want is for him to shag you over his desk.

Preferably without closing the blinds please because honestly it’s been a slow morning and I could do with watching something entertaining.

G

From: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:The Arse

To: Arthur.Pendragon@Pendragon.inc

Maybe you should spend less time staring at Arthur’s fat arse and more time getting on with your work. No I do not want to have the pompous git shag me over his desk no matter how fit he is.

Have you seen how much work he’s given me today? And I can see him in his office now laughing on the phone. Probably talking to his rich dad who’s arranged for Arthur to sit around all day doing nothing, making my life a misery and fuelling your perverted fantasies.

Stop sending me emails.

Merlin

Oh god… Merlin stared at his screen, a sick horror twisting itself in his stomach. How did that even happen? He must have typed Arthur’s name in the reply somewhere and it had jumped up into the ‘To’ field. Oh, he was going to get so fired. He was going to get fired so fast that his feet probably wouldn’t touch the ground on his way out.

From: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Hey

To: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

You okay, mate? You’ve gone a funny colour.

G

Merlin glanced back at Gwaine, who was lounging back in his chair, chewing on a pen lid and clearly doing absolutely nothing useful. He would get fired too, probably. But then Gwaine was the one who’d started it. All Merlin had been doing was his job. Yes. That was going to be his argument. Except he couldn’t do that to Gwaine. Still, Gwaine needed to be warned.

From: Merlin.Emrys@Pendragon.inc

Subject: Re:Hey

To: Gwaine.Greene@Pendragon.inc

I just replied to Arthur instead of you. He’s seen the entire email chain.

M

Gwaine immediately sat up, looking more alert than Merlin had seen him in weeks. He stared at Merlin in horror, shaking his head. Merlin nodded back. It was good to look at Gwaine. It meant he was facing away from Arthur’s office. He didn’t have to see Arthur’s reaction.

“Recall it!” Gwaine hissed.

Oh. Yes. That would have been a good idea. Merlin quickly turned back to his computer and tried to remember where the recall facility was. He could never remember which menu it was on. Or was it hidden away under the file tab or somewhere like that, he wondered. Definitely somewhere that wasn’t immediately obvious. 

There it was, hidden away under the tiny email actions icon. Merlin quickly chose delete all unread copies, pressed the button and held his breath. He still didn’t dare to look towards Arthur’s office.

“Did you do it?” Gwaine asked. 

A message popped up in Merlin’s inbox.

_‘Message recall failure’_

Damn. Arthur must have already opened it.

“Oh shit,” Gwaine muttered, even before Merlin could give him the bad news.

Slowly, reluctantly, Merlin looked up from his screen towards Arthur’s office. 

Arthur was sitting at his desk, face like thunder, glaring at Merlin through the internal office window. 

Which wasn’t really fair, Merlin decided. Gwaine had been involved too. But no, all of Arthur’s scowls were for Merlin alone.

“Think I’m going to grab a coffee, mate,” Gwaine told him.

Merlin didn’t look round as Gwaine’s chair scraped along the floor. He was too mesmerised by Arthur’s expression. Damn, Arthur was attractive when he was angry too. But that didn’t really help matters. And after Merlin’s error there was no chance, ever, of Arthur being even remotely interested.

It would probably have been better if Merlin had replied truthfully to Gwaine and admitted that yes he would be well up for Arthur shagging him on a desk or any other surface that Arthur wanted. And that Arthur was the best-looking bloke Merlin had ever seen. And that the prattishness (because that _was_ a thing with Arthur, no matter how fit he was) paled into insignificance when weighed against the rest of him. Why yes, Merlin _was_ quite shallow, thank you for asking. Absolutely. That would all have been much better. Embarrassing, but probably not quite so insulting.

Arthur continued to bore into him with the death stare for what seemed like forever, but was probably only about a minute. And then he went back to work on his computer, brow furrowed in concentration.

Merlin waited, fully expecting an email to pop up on his screen ordering him into Arthur’s office. Not that Arthur was actually his boss, although being the boss’s son probably did put him unofficially sort of in that category. But Merlin wasn’t going to quibble about that. He knew that when the summons came he was going to get yelled at or worse. Probably worse.

Nothing happened.

Gwaine returned, nearly half an hour later, with a steaming mug of coffee that he placed on the edge of Merlin’s desk.

“What happened?” Gwaine whispered. “Are we sacked?”

The movement of Gwaine’s arrival in the outer office must have caught Arthur’s eye. He looked up briefly from his computer, frowned at them both, then went back to whatever it was he was doing. 

“Not yet,” Merlin admitted. “He’s just sitting there typing. He’s probably forwarded it all to HR and someone will be down to escort us from the building any moment now. Oh no, here’s Leon. Oh god no, George as well! Quick, get back to your desk!”

Leon Knight, head of Audit and his deputy George Smart (the writer of the most detailed and boring reports in the history of all audit reports ever) had appeared at the far end of the main office and were coming up the central aisle, heading towards Arthur’s room. 

“Leon, my man!” Gwaine called, and was that a wink? 

Merlin shook his head, not even wanting to think about it. It was a well-known fact that Gwaine had shagged half the building. Still, if Leon was his latest hit then perhaps they’d be saved. Or, at least, Gwaine would be. Merlin was doomed.

He watched as Leon and Gwaine headed into Arthur’s office and closed the door. Having given up even the slightest pretence of doing any work, Merlin sat and stared while Arthur, Leon and George held some sort of meeting. George was taking copious notes throughout. 

Any moment, Merlin supposed, he was going to be called in and sacked. Or at least put on a disciplinary. The meeting went on for over half an hour. In that time Merlin ignored three phone calls and seven emails, because none of them were from HR or Arthur and therefore would have no bearing on his life in the very near future. The future in which he no longer worked for Pendragon Inc.

Finally, Leon and George got up and left. Leon was laughing at something with Arthur as he opened the door. Probably Merlin’s imminent sacking, Merlin supposed.

“Good work,” Leon called to Merlin as he passed. “Thanks for your help, Merlin.”

Merlin almost fell off his chair in shock. “What?”

“Mr Knight praised your work,” George clarified.

Mr Knight had headed over to Gwaine’s desk and was perched on the edge. There was definite flirting going on. Gwaine was such a tart. Also the world had clearly gone quite mad if Merlin was being praised instead of sacked.

“Arthur told us how helpful you’ve been while he was collating information for his report,” George added.

“Really?”

Well, Merlin _had_ been helpful, but then there had been the email so surely the helpfulness was now forgotten? Perhaps not. He looked cautiously over at Arthur, fearing some trick. Perhaps HR would appear and march him out of the building after all. But Arthur had his head down again, typing away.

“Yes, he’ll be finished here by the end of the day. And it looks as if there aren’t any major issues so nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Merlin repeated faintly. “No… that’s good… thank you.”

George looked pleased, or what passed for pleased with George anyway. Sometimes it was hard to tell. At any rate he walked off after directing a disapproving stare at Gwaine and Leon.

Merlin considered the situation. So. It looked as if Arthur hadn’t reported him. That was good. It also appeared that his section would have a decent audit report that year. Also good. And Arthur would be gone by the end of the day.

That actually was both good and bad. It was good because it meant that any awkwardness would be short-lived. It was bad because Arthur had not actually deserved to receive what was probably quite a hurtful email, and there would only be a very short window of time in which Merlin would be able to apologise and perhaps in some way atone for what he’d done.

Gwaine probably thought he was helping by heading off out of the office for lunch with the head of Audit, Merlin supposed, watching his friend go. That left Merlin alone at that end of the office. Alone, apart from Arthur.

The coffee that Gwaine had brought earlier had gone stone cold whilst Merlin had been staring into Arthur’s office like a rabbit caught in headlights. Merlin picked up the mug, considering it thoughtfully. Arthur liked his coffee white, one sugar. Merlin knew this because he’d had to make it a few times for the bossy prat. 

He didn’t want to face Arthur. He wanted to go to lunch and then work from home or at least another office for the rest of the day. But no matter how annoying and demanding Arthur had been, he didn’t deserve to see two of his colleagues emailing each other about him. 

“Be brave, Merlin,” he told himself, then trotted off to the kitchen.

A little while later Merlin was standing outside Arthur’s office, holding a hot mug of coffee made just how Arthur liked it. Merlin had even pinched a couple of those little packets of biscuits from one of the meeting rooms for him. 

Bracing himself, he knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Arthur called, then looked startled when Merlin opened the door and came in. 

Merlin belatedly realised that he should probably have tapped on the window instead of the solid door, just to give Arthur some warning of who was outside.

“Merlin.” Arthur did not look at all pleased to see him.

Merlin forced the brightest smile he could manage, and held the coffee out like the peace offering that it was. “I brought you some coffee. Uh… and biscuits!” He showed the small packets of bourbons and custard creams. Arthur regarded them as Merlin very carefully placed them on the edge of his desk, then looked back up at Merlin.

“Thank you. Is that all?”

“I’m really sorry,” Merlin offered. “I don’t know how it happened. I was really busy and Gwaine was being so annoying, I wasn’t really thinking what I was doing and… I am really SO sorry.”

Arthur nodded, unsmiling. “It’s not nice reading things like that about yourself, Merlin.”

Merlin took a step back, wondering if he could slip out of the door and just run away. Working somewhere else for the afternoon was an excellent idea. Perhaps by next year someone else would be the auditor. Yes. They didn’t tend to have the same person twice, fresh pair of eyes was always better and all that.

Or perhaps someone else would be doing Merlin’s job because Arthur might have been promoted to director or something and his first decision was to demote Merlin to cleaner in charge of toilets. That was quite likely given the way that Arthur was looking at him. Displeased did not cover it.

“Uh… are you going to report me?” Merlin asked. 

“I’ve considered it.”

Oh god.

“But perhaps you have a wife and three children who all depend on your income, and you’re up to your ears in debt,” Arthur continued.

“Would that make a difference?” Merlin wondered. He had a credit card bill to pay but it was under control. Just about. 

“Well that would depend on whether it was true.”

“Well…” Merlin was tempted, but then Arthur might have access to all personnel files or something and would discover a lie. And Merlin was in enough trouble. “Um… well a small debt on the card but nothing unmanageable. And obviously Gwaine wouldn’t have been making the inappropriate suggestions to me about male colleagues if I had a wife and kids!”

“No. Well, let’s see, shall we? Obviously there are some issues here that need to be addressed. Sit down.”

Merlin reluctantly seated himself in the chair on the other side of Arthur’s desk. He deeply regretted not escaping while he had the opportunity to do so. Gwaine was a sensible man, he thought, getting out of there before Arthur could say anything to him. Merlin had never considered Gwaine sensible before. If only Merlin had been sensible too. 

“Firstly, and I cannot emphasise this one enough, when you receive your performance review later this year you would do well to remember that Mr Kilgharrah does not give points for the fineness of his employees ‘globes’ as Mr Greene so eloquently puts it. No, hard work and intelligence are what will score points with Mr Kilgharrah.”

“Should I be taking notes?” Merlin asked. 

“Are you being flippant?”

“No, I really feel as if I should be taking notes,” Merlin told him honestly. “Or maybe I should fetch Gwaine?”

“Mr Greene, unfortunately, has been shagging my line manager for the past few weeks so I’m afraid you’re on your own. And I know that’s unfair, but then so was sending me that email.”

Arthur was the king of guilt-tripping, Merlin realised. 

“Your dad owns this place,” Merlin pointed out. “You could sack both of them.”

“Rather unfair on Leon,” Arthur replied, and Merlin couldn’t really argue with that. “And that brings me to point two. Yes, my father owns the company. That does not mean I’m your boss, or anyone else's, or that I’m having an easy ride. I’ve been told I have to work my way up so that I know the entire company. That means I had to spend my first month cleaning the toilets. And then I was in the post room for two months. I spent time on reception, and the switchboard… that was an absolute nightmare, by the way. I’ve been here two years in various jobs and spent the last five months in Audit. I think I liked the toilets the best. At least everyone I worked with was friendly.”

Merlin had walked straight out of university into his current job. He felt a bit guilty. “Your dad’s quite strict then?”

“Definitely not someone that I would ever laugh on the phone with,” Arthur replied. “Actually that was one of the post room lads checking whether I was up for football practice tomorrow night. So I’m not lonely either. Another error. Anyway, point three.”

“Point three,” Merlin repeated. He felt really bad. He’d greatly misjudged Arthur. Although Arthur _was_ proving himself a bit of a shit for putting Merlin through all this. Even if Merlin did deserve it. “What if I go and get you a takeaway lunch from the Italian place across the road? My treat. The ravioli’s great.”

“Thank you but no. And that carb-laden food leads nicely to point three. My fat arse.”

Oh god. The suggestions that Gwaine had made, and it was only a few lines of an email, Merlin thought. Then he remember that particular phrase had come from himself.

“It’s not fat, obviously,” Merlin gasped. “I mean, that was just a phrase to Gwaine, I meant Gwaine’s fat head.”

“You didn’t want to stare at Gwaine’s fat head?”

“Well no, definitely not, but I was just typing without thinking. Obviously your arse isn’t fat, it’s… uh… well… what Gwaine said,” Merlin gabbled. He had never wished for the ground to open up and swallow him more. “Uh… I mean about the perfect… um… globes,” he finished quietly, blushing.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. “I do try to stay fit,” he said. “Fat-shaming is poor behaviour, Merlin.”

“Oh my god, you’re not fat!” Merlin gasped. “I’m sorry. Let me buy the ravioli. Flowers! I could buy ‘I’m sorry’ flowers!”

“’I’m sorry’ flowers?”

“Chocolates?” Merlin offered desperately. “Or… anything! Honestly I am mortified that I sent that to you! And I didn’t mean any of it, it’s just the sort of thing that you shoot off to annoying ex-friends when you’re busy.”

“Hmm,” Arthur tapped the end of his pen on the edge of the desk thoughtfully. “Well, perhaps I _have_ been overly demanding this past week. It’s part of the job though. Nobody likes having an audit done – it interrupts their regular work and ends up with a report that picks fault in everything they’ve done.”

Merlin nodded hopefully. “I’ve tried to be helpful,” he offered. 

“You’ve been extremely helpful. And it was actually a refreshing change to find a section with proper processes and procedures in place, and staff who were following them. Made my job a lot easier.”

“That’s good then, right?” Merlin attempted. “You’ll be able to finish it on time and everything?”

“Actually it’s already done,” Arthur admitted. “I just told Leon and George that I needed to tweak it so that I could have a break for the afternoon. George would have immediately set me onto a new project. I made that mistake on my first audit.”

“So… we could actually go across to the Italian and have a long lunch?” Merlin suggested. “Still my treat.”

“Hmm,” Arthur was looking at the screen again, still tapping away with his pen. “Is this the date Gwaine’s told you to ask me on?”

“What?” Merlin said but it came out sounding more like a squeak. 

“Date,” Arthur enunciated. “I quote: ‘Tell me you’ve asked him on a date?’ And Gwaine does then go on to suggest a blow job in the photocopying room.”

Merlin sank further into the chair. “Oh god.”

“Yes. I’ve worked in the photocopying room too. The door doesn’t lock and the blinds don’t close properly. So I would advise against it.”

“That was Gwaine!” Merlin protested. “Most of these bad things are…” he stopped and thought about it. “Hang on, that’s your objection?”

“It’s a valid one.”

“But not the blow job or the date?”

“I have no objections to either, although I’d rather not have Gwaine watch. I would point out that the blinds in here have excellent blackout – I think it’s normally a meeting room isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Merlin said, his voice still coming out slightly squeakier than he would have liked.

“And I’ve noticed that the lock works perfectly,” Arthur continued. He was looking far too pleased with himself. “So, let’s look at this final point. ‘No I do not want to have the pompous git shag me over his desk no matter how fit he is.’ Fit, Merlin?”

“And pompous,” Merlin agreed, licking suddenly dry lips. “Fit and pompous.”

“Charming. Really I should add a spanking to the list of ways you can atone. See how sore your little bottom gets then.”

Merlin definitely wouldn’t be protesting if that’s what Arthur wanted. But still Merlin’s basic nature was to be contrary, and with Arthur he just couldn’t help himself. “Oh come on, listen to yourself _– I would have no objections to a blow job!_ If that’s not pompous I don’t know what is.”

Arthur shrugged. “It’s been a busy week. No objections to the lunch date and then you fucking me over the desk either, come to that. Oh, and the blow job and spanking, of course.” He leaned forward and started to write something down on his notepad.

“Are you making a list?” Merlin asked incredulously. 

Arthur looked up, all blue-eyed innocence though Merlin had already realised that Arthur was nothing of the sort. “Of course. I’m an auditor. I have to pay attention to every tiny detail. Meticulous in _everything_.”

Merlin considered that. _Stuff lunch_ , he decided.

Then he locked the door and closed the blinds.

\-----


End file.
